POLICE SUED IN A CIVIL ACTION AT THE OLD BAILEY

Visitor to court sues police over Terrorism Act arrest

THE TIMES

24^th APRIL , 1980.

 BY  Frances Gibb

A man who was visiting the Central Criminal Court as an interested member of the public was unlawfully arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, it was alleged at the Mayor's and City of London Court yesterday.

 Mr. Michael Connolly, aged 32, then a joiner and carpenter, from south London, found himself arrested because he had not wished to give the police on security duty his name, it was stated.

 Mr. Connolly is suing the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, as being responsible for three Special Branch officers, for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment under the Act. He seeks damages together with an order that fingerprints, photographs and other detailed information about him be destroyed.

Although Mr. Connolly was released seven hours after being held by the police without being charged, the officers maintain that they can keep the information on their Special Branch file for as long as the Prevention of Terrorism Act remains in force.

 Mr. Connolly is being backed by the National Council for Civil Liberties, who made a special request that the case be heard by a jury, although it is a civil action.

 Mr. Peter Thornton, for Mr. Connolly, told the eight-member jury that on October 11, 1977, Mr. Connolly visited the Central Criminal Court with two friends to see how the courts worked. They had chosen that day because one of Mr. Connolly's friends, a court clerk in the United States , was interested in hearing the appeal over the IRA bombings in Woolwich and Guildford.

After three checks and searches they entered the building. When Mr. Connolly saw that names and addresses were being taken at the court door, he decided that as he had an Irish name, he would prefer not to get involved because of the inconvenience. He went into another court where a rape case was being heard. The police questioned his friends as to who he was. When they refused to give his name, saying that that was his business, they were arrested.

 Mr. Connolly was called out of his court and asked to go to the local police station. Counsel said Mr. Connolly's version was that it was not until he got to the police station, where he says he went voluntarily to help his friends, that he was arrested. He said that he was never told why. That is denied by the police.

Mr. Connolly told the jury he was detained for seven hours, during which time he was handcuffed, pulled about and forced by threats of a detention of up to five days to give his fingerprints. He eventually agreed to give them.

"I refused at first because the whole thing was ludicrous ", he continued.

 "I had not done anything wrong and I was being treated like a prisoner."

The arrest was unlawful, he claims, because the police had no reasonable suspicion that he was guilty of a specific offence under the Act. The police argue that the offence was his refusal to disclose information which might have been relevant to terrorism.

The hearing continues today.